Experience of our visit to Gujarat

First of all I want to thank to Swamy Sir, Arun Mamgain Sir and the Indian Army who gave us such exposure, enriching our knowledge with experience.

Porbandar

On 4^th January when we left for Somnath, we were very excited to visit Porbandar on the way. We got up early in the morning at 4 o’clock and completed our daily routine within two hours. We were leaving this base camp at 8 o’clock so we played basket ball for one hour.

(Proper use of Extra time)

Porbandar is a place which related to Our Bapu Mahatma Gandhi. We were very excited to see the place where Gandhi ji was born and married. We want to touch the soil and feel where Gandhi ji passed his childhood.

It was the time for saying good bye to the team of 11 Madras Regiment who looked after us with great care and love. We were so close to each other that eyes of most of our students were wet on the time of departure.

(Giving token of love)

We gave a small gift as a vote of thanks to Col. R.N. Mutalik, Subedar Ravi D. and Nayab Subedar John. We learnt many things from the behavior of these people; they are really a role model for us. Their dedication, love and affection taught us to deliver our duties and services without any greed.

In the bus we recollected our memories about the sites which we had seen in Junagadh. In this way that information remains permanent in our brain. In the way Arun sir told us about the vegetation and land form. He also told us about the see breeze and land breeze which we study in the book but we really observe and understand in this real situation.

 

After completing our tour from Kirti Mandir, Porbandar we left for Somnath. Five hours passed in the bus. Now students started to feel bored and sleepy. (Photograph of student sleeping)

(Long journey Bore Journey)

At this very moment Neeraj asked the bus driver to play a song. He called the name of boys and girls for dancing it was really a tough task to dance in a moving bus. It really entertained us. At this moment Neeraj called the name of Aneesh he is a shy boy. But he started his dance hesitatingly.

(Long Journey makes strong bonds)

We saw the importance of this activity in coming days. The students who were quiet in the class and in the beginning of this tour, began to open and expose themselves. Aneesh, Pankaj Kohli, Priyanka, Gurpreet felt quite confident. After this Neeraj arranged a music show. In this Manish Bhaiya showed his talent of good voice, Arun Bhaiya also paid his Shardhanjali to K.L. Sehgal by singing “ek bangle bane niyara and gam diye mustkil

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At this moment some children were feeling hungry. We had some snacks. Ashawani had this responsibility to distribute the snacks and he performed this job as a father.

We reached at Porbandar and saw the holy place where Mahatama Gandhi ji was born. We also saw the house of Kasturba Gandhi. After two hours we departed for Somnath. Our bus stopped on the way for lunch.

The Army personnel selected a sea beach where they had their special training. It was really a fantastic place near the bank of sea. When we reached there we ran at full pace with excitement. Some students were busy collecting conch and Shells.

For some students this was their first sight of a beach. Some others had their second experience after their Tamilnadu visit. In this way we reached Somnath.

 

Somnath

Yuh toh kai pal beet jate hai jindagi ke Safar mein!!!!! Par kuch pal aise hote hai Jo bas jate hai jindagi ban kar……wait sh sh sh… I have got the moment.

Today we the group fellows wanted to attract each one’s attention to Somnath. Firstly we would like to tell what does Somnath mean? What is it actually about??. The answer is that Somnath is one of the 12 Jotirlingas and it is the first jotirlinga of lord Shiva.

Our journey begins from Veraval beech which is beside the Somnath temple. We got more than half hour to enjoy the shore with our group fellows. We enjoyed ourselves a lot there by clicking group photos and making sand houses.

The most interesting thing that we enjoyed was the sun set in the horizon.(Evening Dream)

After enjoing in the shore, we were going to Somnath.

We were very excited to see the old and historical “somnath temple”. The first thing we saw was the statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel (a well known freedom fighter, who had a great role in making Indian constitution and who built the historical temple).

We were told that arti was about to start, so we should get inside the temple QUICKLY. We got inside the temple. The temple was really wonderful and the gold used in small parts of the temple was attracting great attention. The boys stood separate from girls. Slowly the crowd became more and more. Then the prayer started. We felt a great experience there when as we stood in the crowed body, it start moving by itself.

It was amazing; the rhythm of bells, the beat of drum. All was touching our hearts. We enjoy the prayer.

(Prayer In Somnath)

Then we had a music and light show. It was really amazing sitting beside the sea shore and enjoying the light show, we saw a light show for the first time in our lives.

They told us about the history of the temple in that light show. Then we went to that place were we have to stay to night, and we enjoy the food very much. This is the first time when we had Gujarati dinner and we stayed outside an Army Center.

We were happy with that arrangement, but our Army hosts were very disappointed with the treatment of civilians. They were quite unhappy by dinner that served and the room where we stayed in.

(Our resting room in Somnath)

Mr. Raut dutta Nayab Subedar Major called his base and took every responsibility of food and accommodation under the custody of Army. How can we forget this love and affection which we can’t buy from any market?

 

 

Diu

On 7^th January we set our target to Diu. We were excited to see the sea because whatever time we passed near the sea was not sufficient to fulfill our satisfaction. So we were thinking to pass more time near the sea because we were going to Nagaua Beach. It was in our schedule! But it was most unfortunate time for us as our bus broke down and 2 hours passed on the way.

(HOW CAN WE PASS OUR TIME IN BROKE DOWN BUS)

But we used this time for arranging 1 quiz which was prepared by our group. When we reached just near to the coast it was fantastic moment – The scene of the beach attracting us, the waves touching our hearts. We saw that scene only in books or in dreams, but here we were watching this unbelievable thing.

The bus crossed a bridge, which joins the main land to this island. All the students, and even teachers, stood from their seats and started peeping outside with excitement. They were shouting and making noise like a five year old child.

(THIS PLACE CAN MAKE ANYONE CRAZY)

We reached the place at 11 o’clock where Army Personnel of Gurkha Rifle was waiting for us and Maratha Rifle hand over the charge of our students to them. We all said thanks to Mr. Raut. I believe that without the serious effort of this person, we could not enjoy our tour. I am really thankful this man.

They arranged a tasty Gujarati food in a Restaurant but we were not used to this kind of food. Most students did not finish their lunch completely so they silently slide their chapattis in the plate of Manish sir, in this way he had 19 Chapattis.

(19 Chapatti of Manish Sir)

After lunch, our teachers asked us to hurry up to visit the Diu Fort. We were in front of Diu fort after 15 minutes. Our teachers arranged a guide for us.

Inside the fort we saw a jail which is still use for jail purpose. We were really fascinated when we saw the water arrangement of this fort. Even though it is surrounded by the sea, people were thirsty for fresh water. They had to collect all rain water through small canals and stored it in big tanks. This is a superb example of rain harvesting. We all were agreeing that this kind of arrangement is very useful even today.

This was the first time when we saw underground ways inside any fort. The way was so dark we couldn’t see any thing, even in the light of torch. Neeraj and Arun Bhaiya tried to go inside it.

We saw the tanks, anti air craft tank, tower and the arrangement they made to combat with their enemies. We saw many fortsm but this was a unique for us because it is surrounded by sea.

(Saint Paul Church)                    (Poetry in Wood)

 

After two hours we went to Saint Paul Church in Diu. This church has completed 400 hundred years. Its wooden carving drags our attention it was fantastic.

We sat there for some time their and feel peace of mind and our tiredness had disappeared.

(Observe the strength of Peace )

 

 

 

 

We were completely tired at this moment when we reached Nagau Beach. We don’t know what happened to the students who were sleeping in the bus – they ran away to touch the sea. We stopped there half an hour and had great enjoyment.

(Who cares if we are tired)

This is the time when we departure to Bhavnagar. On the way we visited in a Shell Museum. Here we saw the world of sea. Many unbelievable things became believable for us.

(World of Sea Shell)

OUR EXPERIENCE AT JUNAGARH

03-01-2010 to 05-01-2010.

 

We left SOMNATH early in the morning at about 5 am. The children were very excited to know that our next destination is GIR NATIONAL PARK. It took about 4 hrs to reach there. We were told that the first safari will go inside at sharp 9:30 am. We were present there before time. After taking permission, we moved inside. We were full of enthusiasm and joy.

 

After entering the forest, we first saw a herd of Deer & Nilgai. At a distance of 500-700 meters we found two lionesses in a big cage. We thought that we would see the lions like that only but later on discovered that they were under treatment and that’s why they were provided with the shelter .Our bus was going ahead and we were trying to identify the birds and animals which we could see from our windows.

    

The prideof Gujrat: Asiatic Lion

 

At last we found a lion family roaming around the forest near a high wall. Their roar made us shivering for a moment. It was the first time that we saw lions in their own habitat. There was a high wall beyond which one more lion was roaring loudly. The forest staff had told that the some part of the forest is fenced which turned into national park. The area outside the fence is prohibited by the forest department. The area inside the fence had a limited numbers of lions and the rest were outside the fence. The other lion was provoking the lion which was outside.

We stayed there in bus for about 15-20 minutes and took a lot of photographs and captured videos. It was a great opportunity for us to know about the life of lions, their habitat and their daily activities. The forest department has made proper arrangement of the surrounding for their survival. They had wind mills for pumping underground water giving rise to an artificial pond.

The lion family was sitting under the tree shadow and were resting, but the lion was roaring out on other Lion. It seemed like he was threatening him not to dare to enter his territory. It seems that doing this is a part of his routine. And he was busy in this job all the time throughout our safari.

After the safari we moved to the wildlife museum outside forest’s boundary. The museum had all the information related to each & every animal present in Gir forest. After that we took some rest in the park of Gir campus and enjoyed the lunch offered by the army personnel. In the mean time we organized a quiz related to Jamnagar. Every group was desperate to win the quiz. After having that great experience, we moved toward the NCC camp,

The Army had made the arrangement for our stay in Junagarh. As we were about to reach, our bus broke down. From there we were loaded in a truck and finally reached our destination at about 4pm.

As soon as we reached there we were served with delicious GUJRATI SAMOSA and hot tea as refreshment. We were pleased to see that perfect arrangement done for us. We spent rest of our day enjoying, playing, having group activities & attending quiz.

Next day after having breakfast, we attended a short briefing on NCC delivered by Havaldar Rakesh Pandey.

NCC BRIEFING

Next, we moved for our next destination “JUNAGARH FORT”. We reached there in 1 hour. We hired a guide named Mr.Vinod. He explained all the facts & stories about that fort. The fort has 8 places to visit mainly BUDDHA CAVES, ADI CHHADI KI BAVADI, DEEP WELL, RANI KA MAHAL, GRAIN STORE etc.

                    

BUDDHA CAVES: It is the place where Monks used to meditate there.

RANI KA MAHAL: Rani Ranak Devi spent more of her time over there. The guide reminded us all history related to that place. We captured many snaps of that beautiful historical place.

On one side of “Rani Ka mahal” we were able to see the great GIRNAR HILL.

 

GIRNAR HILL

The special fact about the GIRNAR HILL is that if we rotate its snap by 90⁰ anticlockwise it acquiresss the face of LORD SHIVA.

 

 

On one side of “Rani Ka mahal” we were able to see the great GIRNAR HILL.

It is said that two girls namely Ari and Chari sacrificed themselves to bring the water in a Bawadi(well). Thereafter the king named the place after the two girls and it is called “Ari Chari ki Bawadi”.

After that we saw an underground grain storage house from ancient times, which was used by the people in hard times. In olden times it was covered in such a way that enemies should not come to know about its location. Neem leaves and cow-dung was used to protect the grains from pesticides.

 

Now our next destination was BIBI KA MAQBARA. In about one hour, we reached there. We were stunned to see the beautiful architecture of that building but at the same time we felt very bad due to the negligence of Archeological Department of India .The building there needed its repair, however the caretaker told us that some amount of money is being given for renovation of Maqbara but still no steps are being taken. The care taker explained about the historical importance of that Maqbara .On its right side another building was there which resembles ‘The Taj Mahal‘. It is also famous as Mini Taj Mahal. Still no steps are being taken for maintenance.

 

 

 

The Makbara was made by Mohammed Khanji II in the memory of his mother. On the left side of Maqbara a beautiful mosque was made.

    MINI TAJMAHAL                ARCHITECTURE OF BIBI KA MAQBARA

 

After that we moved to have our lunch arranged at NCC camp by army people. There we had our lunch and took some rest. We were pleased to hear that we would able to see Ashoka’s rock edicts. It was a great experience and we found ourselves a bit in Ashoka’s dynasty. There was a huge rock on which something was inscribed which we couldn’t understand. Later we came to know that it was written in Pali language (Brahmi script) used in the Ashoka’s and Scandgupta’s dynasty. We were able to understand the message written on that rock from the boards placed near that rock with all the messages in English.

INSCRIBED ROCKS

 

We were fortunate that we had gone such rare places having historical importance as well as wonderful charm. We were very grateful to our Swamy sir, Arun Mamgain sir who were in contact with us for each and every hour, to give us such a wonderful opportunity and last but not least god who brought us under the supervision of our Swamy sir and Chinni madam.

THANKS A LOT TO EVERYONE FOR THEIR CO-OPERATION.

 

Ahemdabad

GROUP TEACHER: MANISH SIR

GROUP CAPTAIN: VISHAL THAPA

  

  

  

  

 

STUDENTS OF THE GROUP
Sagar Sharma

Priyanka Sharma

Shivam Joshi

Priyanka Kumari

Sanjeet Singh

Neha Panwar

Kritika Kumari

Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s principal city, is one of the major industrial cities in India. It is called the ‘Manchester of the East’ due to its many textile industries.

Over the centuries, Ahmedabad has had a number of periods of grandeur, each followed by decline. It was originally founded in 1411 by Ahmed Shah, from whom the city takes its name, and in the 17^th century was thought to be one of the finest cities in India.

We arrived at Ahmadabad on the 10^th of January after travelling three and a half hours from Baroda. Though it was the last destination for our trip to Gujarat, the vivaciousness and excitement of students made us forget all our tiredness. The views of the awesome and beautiful historical places made us feel being in heaven. We felt we had been given a windfall that people rarely get.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at Sabarmati Ashram at 12 am, where 21 Rajput Regiment escorted us nicely and arranged our refreshments. We were very delighted with comfort and cozy accommodation provided to us in Ahmedabad by the Regiments. Subedar Ramjanki Singh received us with his team. He was a very good and cooperative person belonging to Gonda district of UP.

The first place we visited after arriving in Ahmedabad was the Sabarmati Ashram which endowed and made us aware of the legacy that the father of nation Mahatma Gandhi left for people. It was seven km away from the centre of town and was situated on the west bank of Sabarmati River. This was Gandhiji’s Headquarters during the long struggle for independence. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sabarmati Ashram was founded in 1915 and to this day, handicrafts, handmade paper and spinning wheels are produced here.

Manish sir got impressed with their hand work and bought two cotton spinning wheels as a token of remembrance for that place.

 We went for lunch and after having the delicious lunch we headed towards the Akshardham temple which was on a distance of seven km only from our camp. At 3: 15 pm we were at Akshardham temple. We were very excited to see the big building of the temple with beautiful carving on it. Many people were there, so Manish sir was worried about our safety and he gave us a lot of instructions to be followed. Neeraj bhai checked our neck bag and after clearing a very tight security we were inside the temple.
As we entered the temple we got shocked by the beauty of that monument. Subedar Ram Janki Das told us that on December 2003 this temple was attacked by terrorist and about thirty people were killed. Akshardham is dedicated to lord ‘Narayan swami’. We entered the main room and saw a huge golden statue of ‘Narayan Swami’. After visiting temple we came out and now we were suppose to see a big exhibition on ‘Narayan Swami’ and about Akshar Dham.

The Army arranged our tickets and as we were about to enter the auditorium, we all got awestruck by the antique sculptures, and we all started thinking about the hard work of the workers who did that carving. Suddenly we saw Shikha didi weeping in a corner catching the attention of everyone. Everyone was so concerned to find out what was causing Shikha didi to weep. Manish sir and Arun sir instructed students to bring some water for her and went to Shikha didi worrying that there might be some problem with her health. Not only the teachers but also the students there reflected their concern by asking what was wrong with her.

It turned out that the reason for her weeping was that somebody had stolen her shoes. The situation was so strange and funny that everybody was going to the corners to giggle. Later on, Neeraj Bhai came and made her laugh by saying “I will steal more expensive shoes for you”. This incident offered many of us to volunteer help, but this was nothing but the free advice that everybody gives in India.

After the tiring day of long travelling we had our dinner and assembled in the lawn where Manish sir and Arun sir eloquently described us the history of Ahmedabad. Sir asked about the day’s report and looked at our notes where he found that some of the children are just pretending to be serious. Then we all moved towards our rooms for sleeping, with some fun jokes, and dance but the careless students were made to copy the notes and learn about that places visited on that day. We all packed our minds with the memorable dreams of the places visited. Some of the students were even flying kites in their dreams as on the next day they were planned to visit the famous kite festival of Gujarat. This day was even more memorable as Mr. Narendra Modi was to be the chief Guest.

Some students while pretending to sleep had some had plotted to make moustaches by black sketch on the rest of the students who had taken a long jump in their dreams. Next day the morning became as funny as it was supposed to be and made all of us to preserve this experience as a golden memory of our life.

We got into the bus at 6:30 and moved toward the place where Kite festival was to be inaugurated. Contestants from 32 countries took part in this kite festival. At 8:30 chief minister ‘Narendra Modi’ was supposed to come but as we all know he came at 9:30 and gave the speech. We were unable to understand it as it was in Guajarati but some of our students were able to understand a bit of that and were trying to explain it to their friends.
 After that we went to science city, which was the major attraction of the tour. It was the most amazing place that we visited on our tour.

It was a wonderful experience for us. The atmosphere of science city was like space centre. Photographs of various astronauts were hung there. We got a chance to see a 3D movie which was based on dinosaurs’. It seemed like dinosaur will come out and attack us. Abhishek Sharma was so scared that he started screaming. A child from some other school got so scared that he vomited on Abhishek Maurya.

On 13 of Jan. we started our trip by visiting J.G. International school. Principal Brinda Ghosh with her husband Subasish Ghosh welcomed our group.
They both were very kind and were treating us as their own children. She offered us lunch but because of our busy scheduled we were unable to have it with her. We visited the entire school and our children interacted with the children of that school. When our students interacted with the students of that school some of them really came to know about where they stand in front of others and decided to work hard to become better than those students.
 

We also visited to a dinosaur’s park where we saw different species of their family with lots of birds.

There we learnt about the different periods of Dinosaur

1. Triassic Period
   
2. Jurassic Period
   
3. Cretaceous Period.
   
4. Late Cretaceous Period.
   

 

We requested Manish sir for shopping as it was our last day and we were leaving for Dehradun on the next day. After a long request to many people we got 45 minutes for our shopping at lal market. It was a big market and we went for shopping in groups under the supervision of our group teachers. Six of us were in the group of Manish Sir. We had a very nice time in the market although it was a usual market like here in Dehradun. We bought key rings, wallet and lots of small things to gift it to our friends and family members. Also we ate Dhokla and Pastry. After doing shopping we went back to ‘Chiloda’ where we were staying.

It was our last night at Ahmedabad. We did our packing and after our dinner we sat together and had a quiz on Ahmedabad. After which we went to our beds dreaming about dinosaurs, lions, 3D movie and the experience we had in these 15 days. At night we all did masti, with lots of fun.

Next morning we were to catch our train at 9 AM. We all got up early and got ready by 7AM. After proposing the vote of thanks and presenting the gift we all said good bye to all the army personnel. All the children were very upset as it was the end of an amazing and educative part of their lifes but the feeling that they would soon meet their families comforted them. Three army officers accompanied us till the railway station and left only after our train started moving.

Thanks to all the Donors who made this Trip possible for us.